Georgia has a statute that lets an adult repeat in court what a child said out of court, but it is narrower than most people expect and it comes with conditions.
The Child Hearsay Statute
The statute is OCGA 24-8-820. In Latta v. State, 341 Ga. App. 696 (2017), the Court of Appeals set out its terms: a statement by “a child younger than 16 years of age describing any act of sexual contact or physical abuse performed with or on such child by another” is “admissible in evidence by the testimony of the person to whom made” if three things are true.
Those three conditions are that (1) the party offering the statement gives the other side notice before trial of the intention to use it, (2) “such child testifies at the trial,” and (3) at the time of that testimony “the person to whom the child made such statement is subject to cross-examination regarding the out-of-court statements.”
What It Does Not Reach
The statute covers a narrow subject. The child must have been under 16, and the statement must describe sexual contact or physical abuse. It is not a general permission slip to tell the judge what your child said at home. A child’s statement about which parent she would rather live with is not a statement describing abuse, and the statute does not make it admissible.
Otherwise, the Hearsay Rules Apply
They apply in custody cases too. In Blue v. Hemmans, 327 Ga. App. 353 (2014), a mother testified about what school officials had told her, the father objected, and the Court of Appeals held that her testimony “should have been disregarded by the trial court as inadmissible hearsay.” The custody finding that rested on it was unsupported, and the order was vacated.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!